Hobby hunter shoots trusting duck

For the past several years, a very trusting duck had been living at Rosenthaler Weiher. She allowed herself to be petted and brought great joy to passers-by.

But that has now come to an end. On Epiphany, the duck — which was not native to the area — was shot.

Between Münchwilen and Rosental, inconspicuously situated right next to the Murg river, lies Rosenthaler Weiher. A home for fish and birds in the middle of a nature reserve. On Monday, the WN received a letter to the editor from Simone Meyer of Münchwilen with the title: «Obituary for a Duck». In it, she described a duck that, while not native to the region, had settled here. What made her special: «She was tame,» says Simone Meyer. She would sit down next to visitors on a bench and even let herself be petted. «She always brought great joy to walkers, young and old,» says the 54-year-old. Since Epiphany, however, that is no more.

The duck was a neozoon

Just before dusk that Saturday, Meyer was out on horseback, passing by the pond, heading in the direction of Wängi. Suddenly she heard two shots. “Further ahead I then came across the two hobby hunters and their dog. At their feet lay the dead duck.” That tame, joy-bringing duck with its dark body and white head. Unmistakable among the native mallards that otherwise inhabited the pond. “I thought to myself, this can’t be real,” recalls Simone Meyer. She asked why the duck had to die. The answer: “She is a foreign species and a nuisance to those very mallards.” That is confirmed by the hobby hunter responsible, Christian Mussak. He had shot the duck. On the phone he said curtly: “The duck was a neozoon. It was driving out native species and destroying their nests.” He did not want to say much more on the subject. Only that he held a hunting licence, that duck hunting was legal, and that there was currently no closed season for the animals.

“People should know what happened”

Simone Meyer understands the hobby hunter’s arguments, but cannot entirely follow them. She feels that nature could have been left to sort things out itself. “She had certainly been here for five years already, perhaps even longer. Someone should have weighed up and questioned whether shooting her was really necessary.” She wonders whether a different solution could not have been found for the tame bird, if it truly had been such a nuisance. But it is too late for that now. Meyer is certain that the absence of the Bald Eagle — as the tame duck had been affectionately named by some passers-by — will be noticed. She does not want people to wonder what might have happened to it. “I would ask myself the same thing if I hadn’t seen the duck at the pond for a while. That is why I wrote the letter to the editor. People should know what happened,” she says, in the Wiler Nachrichten. More on cases like this at Crime and Hobby Hunting.